Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday called the BJP’s Gujarat model a template for dispossession, where bulldozers targeted Dalits and the poor while vast tracts of land are handed to industrialists at throwaway prices.
“The Gujarat model is clear – bulldozers for Dalits, backward classes, and the poor, while thousands of acres of land for Adani for free or just Rs1,” said the leader of Opposition over the recent demolition of Petapur slum in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
He said the demolition razed homes of more than 400 families after being labeled “illegal.”
Residents, Gandhi noted, possessed valid identification and records, including electricity bills, tax receipts, ration cards, Aadhaar cards, and voter ID cards.
“Not just in Gujarat, but in Delhi and other parts of the country, such demolition incidents are continuously coming to light. And in many cases, as in Gandhinagar, people had stay orders issued by the courts,” he added.
According to him, the demolitions reveal a political strategy.
“The BJP clearly knows that they cannot form a government through the real mandate of the people; their government is formed through theft and by capturing institutions. Therefore, they snatch away the rights of the poor and hand over the country's assets to a few of their billionaire friends.”
He closed with a pledge...“India's democracy is for the rights of the people, and it will run for them. We will not let the BJP and its friends steal from the country.”
This is not the first time the Congress leader has turned the spotlight on bulldozer politics.
On July 25, 2025, he visited Jailerwala Bagh and Wazirpur in Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, where the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demolished over 500 slum dwellings. Gandhi met displaced families and heard accounts of how their lives had been upended.
He was accompanied by Congress national spokesperson Ragini Nayak, who contested the Wazirpur Assembly seat earlier this year.
“Rahul ji patiently heard every story — from school kids who cannot attend classes anymore, to families who said their homes were demolished despite having court stays… there has been no electricity for the past 2-3 weeks because the electricity poles were uprooted during the demolition,” Nayak said.
“He has assured us that we are going to move court, and we are also going to fight this battle on the street, in Parliament. We cannot fight in the Delhi Assembly because we have no MLAs there and because those who have representation are not raising the matter. We will ensure that justice prevails. We have asked our team to follow up with the people and take the matter to court… most likely, we will pick it up in Parliament too,” Nayak added.
The demolished slum cluster in Wazirpur stood alongside the railway track, and videos shared by Congress on X showed Rahul Gandhi among residents, many of whom said their homes were razed despite ongoing court proceedings.
Two days after his visit, on July 27, the Congress MP said the Delhi demolitions exposed the BJP’s “arrogance of power” and “insensitivity towards the poor.” He shared a video of his interactions with families in Ashok Vihar and accused the ruling party of committing an “atrocity” in the name of administration.
“How would you feel if the roof over the head of your parents, children or siblings is suddenly taken away – if your entire family is rendered homeless in a single moment? Hundreds of poor families living in the jhuggis of Delhi are going through this pain today,” Rahul said in a post on X.
He argued that the demolished structures were more than shelters. “These were not just houses – these were their dreams, their dignity and their means of living.”
The DDA had allegedly carried out the anti-encroachment drive in West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, razing more than 300 dwellings it classified as illegal.
